This book gives incredible insight into the year 1879, including clear (and THOROUGH) rules on social etiquette, how to dress, write letters, arrange flowers to tell someone that they horrify you and are keeping you prisoner and you wish to arm yourself against them, how to covert between a massive array of currencies (including DOUBLOONS), how to reject your suitor for being an alcoholic, speak a number of phrases in 4 languages, there is also a rhyming dictionary (and several other types of dictionary), how and what to publish in a newspaper, how to behave in a ballroom (for men AND women)... hell, I'm having significant difficulty finding a topic that was NOT touched upon. An absolute oddity of a book, it's a real page-turner and I'm completely shocked he doesn't seem to have published anything else!